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It is understood that Goldman Sachs JBWere has been filtering approaches, which remain at a preliminary stage.

Under its pugnacious chief executive, Paul Broad, the former Powertel boss, AAPT has gone some way to improving its performance in margin terms. But the business still faces double-digit revenue decline.

The jewel in its crown is its wholesale and corporate data business, inherited from the Powertel acquisition, but the low-margin consumer business has so far attracted limited interest from potential buyers.

That’s not least because there is still so much uncertainty around the national broadband network and what its arrival will mean for the retail telecommunications market.

Nevertheless, AAPT’s wholesale network could be attractive to the NBN Co itself at the right price. In 2006, Telecom tried to sell AAPT for a rumoured $1 billion but bids fell short by about $400 million. At the time, Telecom was advised by Citigroup.

Long rumoured potential bidders for AAPT have included Singapore Telecommunications-owned Optus, Asia-based Pacnet, and New York-based private equity firm Quadrangle.

Today’s profit warning by Telecom underlines how much it could benefit from the cash it could raise from an AAPT sale.

After a series of cock-ups, including Telecom’s disastrous mobile phone network launch, Paul Reynolds could certainly do with a win right now.